Welcome to a course in Life Cycle Assessment

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Welcome to a course inLife Cycle Assessment

• Centre for Environmental Strategies Research
• Anna Björklund and Göran Finnveden

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• Whats the environmental impact of a PET bottle?
• Which is better PET bottles,glass bottles, or
  aluminium cans?

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Energy material
Emissions
Raw material acquisition
Manufacture
Use
Waste management

• LCA covers the entire life cycle, from
  cradle-to-grave
• LCA calculates energy and resource use,
  emissions, environment and health impacts

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The life cycle model
Raw material acquisition
Resources (e.g. raw materials, energy,land)
Process
Transport
Manufacture
Emissions to air, water, ground
Use
Waste management
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Definition of LCA

• LCA is a technique for assessing environmental
  aspects and potential impacts of a product, by
• compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and
  outputs of a product system
• evaluating potential environmental impacts
  associated with those inputs and outputs
• interpreting the results.
• (ISO 14040)

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Why LCA?

• System focus, avoids sub-optimization and problem
  shifting.
• Structured, quantitative method to analyse
  complex systems.

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Short LCA history

• Waste debate and oil crisis strong incentives.
• 1969 First LCA? Resource and Environmental
  Profile Analysis (REPA) of beverage packaging,
  commissioned by Coca Cola. (Similar contemporary
  studies in UK, Germany, Sweden)
• 1980s Growing use of LCA, applied to packaging.
  Mostly know to researchers.
• 1991 The term LCA was defined.
• 1996 First scientific LCA journal.
• 1997 First ISO standard.
• Today LCA finds it way to public policy, design,
  decision making, education.

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Applications of LCA

• Product/process design, development, improvement.
• Strategic planning (e.g. in companies,
  municipalities)
• Public policy
• Learning
• Eco-labelling
• Environmental produc declaration
• Marketing

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Some applications

• Environmental Systems Analysis of Pig Production
  - The Impact of Feed Choice
• Life Cycle Assessments for Waste
• Life Cycle Assessment of a Personal Computer and
  its Effective Recycling Rate
• Life Cycle Assessment of the District Heat
  Distribution System
• Life Cycle Assessment of the Mobile Communication
  System UMTS Towards Eco-efficient Systems
• LCA of Multicrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic
  Systems
• Life Cycle Assessment of Kerosene Used in
  Aviation
• Life Cycle Assessment of Wood Floor Coverings

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LCA methodology in brief
Life cycle assessment framework
Interpretation
Goal and scope definition
Inventory analysis
Impact assessment
Source ISO 14040
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ISO 14000Environmental management

• ISO 14040 LCA - Principles and framework
• ISO 14041 LCA - Goal and scope definition and
  inventory analysis
• ISO 14042 LCA - Life cycle impact assessment
• ISO 14043 LCA - Life cycle interpretation
• ISO 14047 LCA - Examples of application of
  ISO 14042
• ISO 14048 LCA - Data documentation format
• ISO 14049 LCA - Examples of application of
  ISO 14041

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Goal and scope definition

• Goal
• purpose
• intended application
• intended audience
• Scope (specification of model)
• studied product (or service)
• system boundaries processes to include, time,
  place
• types of impacts
• data requirements

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Goal of Danish packaging LCA

• Purpose Update LCA comparing potential
  environmental impact of packaging systems.
• Application Basis for decisions on packaging
  systems in Denmark.
• Audience General publication (external).

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Scope of Danish packaging study

• Functional unit Packaging and distribution of
  1000 litres beer or softdrink.
• System boundaries
• Bottles or cans that are filled and sold in
  Denmark,
• secondary packaging (boxes, pallets, etc.),
• all processes contributing significantly to the
  life cycle impacts

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Inventory

• Draw flow chart of product system.
• Collect data of resource use and emissions of all
  processes
• Data sources LCA databases, reports, scientific
  papers, on-site investigation, expert knowledge,
  qualified guesses
• Build system model (computerised in e.g. generic
  LCA tool, Excel, other)
• Calculate resource use and emissions of studied
  product.
• Present results in charts and tables.
• Iterative procedure!

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Inventories inDanish packaging study

• Inventories of
• refillable glass bottles
• disposable glass bottles
• aluminium cans
• steel cans
• refillable PET bottles
• disposable PET bottles

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Process tree glass bottle
Retail
Filling w. soda
Use
Manufacture glass bottle
Waste management
Prod. soda
Prod. lime
Prod. sand
Recycling
Landfill
Raw material extract.
Raw material extract.
Raw material extract.
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Impact assessment

• Classification Sorts inventory parameters
  according to type of environemtal impact.
• Characterisation Translates inventory results
  (emissions, resource use) to potential
  environmental impact.
• Example Global warming potential (according to
  EDIP)
• 1 CH4 25 CO2 equivalents
• 1 N2O 320 CO2 equivalents
• 1 CO 2 CO2 equivalents

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Impact assessment in Danish packaging study

• EDIP (Danish method)
• Global warming
• Ozone depletion
• Acidification
• Eutrophication
• Photochemical smog
• Ecotoxicity water chronic/acute, soil
• Human toxicity air, water, soil
• Waste bulk, hazardous, radioactive
• Slags/ashes
• Resources

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Optional steps

• Normalisation Relates each impact of the product
  system to impacts of society as a whole. Gives
  perspective of relative importance.
• Weighting Relates different impacts to each
  other, based on subjective values.